Because AJE is coming, I am starting up RoP to try to get into the system once more (last time I gave up after the Saxony scenario because the complexity of the complete campaign).

I decided to start with the 1762-1764 campaign, because that one is the shortest, as Austrian player, because I hope it demands less from the player abilities.

(I suspect I am going to ask a lot of questions in this thread)

First I looked at the victory conditions, and here I am already at a loss:

It tells me that I have 15 controlled strategic towns out of a total of 29:
I only count 13 controlled in that list and a total of 26.

It also says that I accumulate 25 points from cities each turn:
I count 11 points from the Controlled Objectives:
1 x 3 VP (5 NM), 3 x 2 VP (3 NM) and 2 x 1 VP (1 NM),
That leaves 14 controlled strategic towns to add up to 25 VP's, not 13 that I count or 15 that it says.

What am I missing here?

However, assuming it is correct, when I maintain the status quo, I will win the scenario, gaining 5 VP more than the Prussians per turn over 18 turns, starting with 25 VP less than them. Correct?

Oh, I see what you're saying now. There are 15 VP cities under your control, they just don't fit the list. I forget which cities don't show up but I've noticed them on the map before. I'm not sure why it's 25 per turn and not 26 though.

Erik Springelkamp wrote:What do the little icons to the right of the counter below the command posture mean?

The stack on the left has a lot of dots above ?a cross?

This is the merge units symbol, this unit will move and join the target unit. Or if the target unit is an enemy one it will try to follow and engage it. It tells you what unit is being targeted and in what region along the top of the stack panel when the unit is selected.

I moved a French Army in coordinated mode with 3 Corps, and at the end of the move the Army had merged with the Corps. They won a battle during the move.

I thought they should have remained separate stacks?

I don't have the option checked to join forces at the end of the move, but I think that should only influence the display of the stacks.

The "Synchronize Move Order" is supposed to just move corps or an army and corps together, not to merge. You are saying that they all actually merged together into one unit, not just that the different units were merely stacked on top of each other?

Philo32b wrote:The "Synchronize Move Order" is supposed to just move corps or an army and corps together, not to merge. You are saying that they all actually merged together into one unit, not just that the different units were merely stacked on top of each other?

Yes. Three Corps and the Army stack started together. I only gave the Army a movement order, with the double arrow special order.In the replay they all moved separately, synchronously, they had combat on the way, won, and at the end of the move there was one very large stack without separate Corps.

This is the replay. The French army starts from Kassel and moves North to displace the Prussians:

They beat the Prussian force

and continue to move North

and then they merge

into one giant stack

But now I understand:

I accidentally dropped my Army stack on the forward observation force when ordering the move, so everyone merged with this force.

Very complex game, you have to be so careful in so many ways.

On another note: I think it is unfortunate that during the movement of stacks they are often displayed rather far from the centre of the regions, and in many cases they seem to occupy another region then actually do.

Like above, the stacks are shown very far to the East, while they are in fact just moving along the road.

Especially with enemy stacks I often think they are in a different region than they really are.

I've had that problem of accidentally merging stack of units together, especially when the stacks are in very close proximity. A solution that I found in the forum somewhere was to make good use of the ability to lock units. Cntrl+l will prevent all units from merging. You can then make your proposed moves in one area of the map ( everywhere if you like) and then hit control+l again to turn the merging feature off. It can also be done on a individual unit basis by right clicking on the unit tab. The commands show up in the appendix section of the users manual.

Erik Springelkamp wrote:On another note: I think it is unfortunate that during the movement of stacks they are often displayed rather far from the centre of the regions, and in many cases they seem to occupy another region then actually do.

Like above, the stacks are shown very far to the East, while they are in fact just moving along the road.

Especially with enemy stacks I often think they are in a different region than they really are.

Keep asking and learning. The regions actually change shade when you put your mouse on the unit. While this does not help with enemy units, it is a good way to be certain where your own units are.
I remember my first experience with this system. I was convinced it was broken, somehow incomplete. Then as I learned more, and discovered the forum, I began to be passionate about how skillfully these games are constructed.

So i am a noob to this game, played others like civil war 2. How do you get the generals portraits to display on the game map? I just have soldiers in stacks showing when I have officers in the stacks.

I realise the original post was made a while ago, but I think I do have an answer (of sorts) to it. I'm just getting into the game myself and I'd spotted this apparent discrepancy in another scenario. In that one, I eventually realised that the Ledger wasn't showing all Strategic Towns. In that instance, it was the off-map city of Pesht that was not shown - and thus was confusing me. I think this glitch may be behind the OP's problem too.

IIRC the ledger only shows 26 lines (objectives cities) while there are 29 in the game, so 3 are indeed "missing" as not shown. As the page size can't be increased, the only way to solve it would be to revise down the list of objectives